Guido has remarked previously on Kevin “Make it Up” Maguire’s unhinged hatred of one particular frail old lady. In his (always a good read) New StatesmanDiary column this week he insists

Maggie Thatcher’s salivating disciples, eagerly awaiting their heroine’s Downing Street resurrection, may soon be frothing and foaming instead. Richard Stone’s oil painting of the Rusty Lady will not be hung, as was widely anticipated, on No 10’s grand staircase. Once unveiled she will, I hear,* be confined to an attic – or, more specifically, a corner room up the stairs and left down the corridor. Once installed in the Thatcher Study, as the room in which she long toiled is known, Maggie will languish unseen except by escorted visitors.

If Kevin fancies a bet, Guido is willing to make a wager, for he has it on good authority that by June 4, 2010 at the very latest, Margaret Thatcher’s picture will be hanging in pride of place at the top of the grand staircase.

Back where she belongs – in Downing Street.

*“I hear” when written by Maguire in this context can be translated as “Damian McBride told me in the Westminster Arms”.